#updated to tag in whenmemorydies

[freedelusionshere]

Syd tried to run Sheridan Road on her own and it wiped her out financially and emotionally. This is obviously completely different from Carmy’s Empire experience with Chef David’s waste, abuse, and excesses, but there are some parallels. See @whenmemorydies post about The Bear showing intentionally how food, time, and labor are wasted.

Syd wasn’t using extravagant ingredients she was just making really good food. The lamb ragu story comes to mind. Something that had to be cooked slowly for hours (which, there are similar mentions of this like Carmy telling Marcus about the plum wine reduction that had to be watched for hours), but the ragu is a dish that can be stretched further to feed a lot of people with relatively inexpensive ingredients.

Can you imagine her hand making all of that pasta for mean pasta lady’s event and having to throw it out and how that probably killed her? Like throwing out all her labor? She pivots by serving it over those Hawaiian rolls which you can buy at the supermarket. But that’s like panic mode having to make it work and then we know this woman wasn’t having it.

Also, we see Syd being frustrated at trying to make pasta in S2, which must be on purpose narratively because it’s something Carmy can probably do in his sleep but she doesn’t want to ask him for help at that point, she’s pissed at him.

All of this to say Syd had to have hired catering staff to help her, but probably didn’t have a team around her at all times. She was probably doing all the books, marketing, cooking and testing, buying, etc. As someone that had a business before and it bombed this shit is next-level exhausting. Part of the reason I wanted to do it was to escape the system I was working in and do things my own way which is really a trap in and of itself when you try to do it all on your own.

Which, I know what she means when she tells her dad she doesn’t have “another one” in her and why she doesn’t want to have to leave The Bear and start over again when Carmy literally agreed with her that they would try to do things differently.

But Syd also has a tendency to minimize herself and bust her ass endlessly and she feels responsible for other people. When you go to work for yourself and make all the decisions you don’t have to create a system to put other people through and grind them like you are grinding. Look at how she protects Tina in S3. Her taking care of other people is deflecting from taking care of herself and being honest about her needs.

This long-ass post is basically to talk about how she doesn’t want to be individualistic but Carmy also said he didn’t want to do things the same in S1, either and then did. If Syd ends up in charge in S4, is she likely to repeat her past as well? Her entertaining Shapiro’s offer seems to be hinting at that (wanting control) or would she potentially reject the idea of one person being in control at this point altogether? I think what she wants is a true partner but if she doesn’t feel she will get that will she fall back on being self-reliant?

Or, as @whenmemorydies posted here about Syd "putting in the work", will she not repeat the past because she has grown and learned?